Jerry Buss, LA Lakers' owner, dies at 80

FILE - In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
— AP

FILE - In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
/ AP

In January 2011, Forbes estimated the Lakers were worth $643 million - the second-most valuable NBA franchise.

Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, even receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.

Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan - another deal that was ahead of its time.

Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in Wyoming and attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took an abrupt turn into wealth and sports.

The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer.

Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss' love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers - who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 - into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.

"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."

Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast cool.

Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and chiseled good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.

Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.

Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.